- Get our drivers licences - we're now officially licensed to drive on the wrong side of the road
- Find a place to live - we found a four bedroom house with a great kitchen (two ovens!) which is not too far away from work
- Convince the Department of Homeland Security that I'm legally authorised to work in the US - somewhat important, given our current situation
- Buy a car - we're now the proud owners of a brand new Mazda CX-5. We had no intention of buying a new car when we first arrived, but the need to establish credit history, along with the comparatively low car prices here ended up convincing us to do so
- Buy a KitchenAid! Especially as the mixer arriving in the shipment has a motor which is about to blow... which would mean no cake :(
- Discover Ikea... and spend lots of money there
- Find the local Buddhist temple - very different to Sydney
Currently our house has a small table, four chairs, a bed... and that's it. Not entirely true - we got sick of this situation and went to Ikea (of course) to buy some more comfortable chairs to sit on. As a result, pictures are not worth the effort, until...
Our stuff arrives - on Friday! Our shipment containing a lot of our worldly possessions has cleared US customs, and will arrive at our new house, to be unpacked, unwrapped, and classified as either:
- Stuff that will work anywhere in the world (i.e. no power required)
- Stuff that hopefully will work, even with power requirements
- Stuff that should have stayed in Australia, but I was too rushed to sort it out (this will lead to a collection of perfectly good appliances which won't work over here)
- Stuff that just should have been thrown away... many many years ago
And with that, one of the final pieces of the relocation puzzle will fall into place. After that - you could say we're almost settled in! Now to furnish all of these extra rooms...
